


Clever Boots

by tinsnip



Category: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Genre: Conversation, Dialogue, Gen, One-Up-Manship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-06
Updated: 2016-02-06
Packaged: 2018-05-18 13:53:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 447
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5930782
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tinsnip/pseuds/tinsnip
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>One of my favourite things about both Elim Garak and Julian Bashir is how terribly, terribly clever they are. I mean, really, each of them has to be the smartest person in the room at all times. That said, I think they're coming at it from different directions, and for different reasons.<br/>From that: chit-chat over lunch.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Clever Boots

  


you're sooo smart

  * [CHAPTER 1](https://app.novlr.org/novel/56b6146b6a38f22d00000001/56b6146c6a38f22d00000003)

Chapter 1




[  Notes](https://app.novlr.org/novel/56b6146b6a38f22d00000001/56b6146b6a38f22d00000002)

  
ADD IMPORT SPLIT  


"--so clearly, if you were actually paying attention instead of skimming--"

"I don't skim!"

"You _do,_ in some sort of effort to impress me with your intellectual acumen--"

"That's very self-important--"

"And accurate, and as I was saying, if you were paying attention you would have realized that Parmani LUtet was not trying to save the proctor's child, he was trying to _appear_ as if he was in order to embarrass the proctor."

"No, that's ridiculous."

"Think about it, my dear doctor."

"...oh my God."

"Precisely."

"I'm going to have to reread that whole chapter."

"Yes."

"In order to prove you wrong."

"Excuse me?"

"It's abundantly clear that although LUtet does want to embarrass the proctor, he's also nurturing his own deficient fellow-feeling by engaging in acts that serve the Union, not himself."

"That's an unusual interpretation."

"Well, when I read something, I _pay attention._ I don't just rely on the interpretations of critics who've read it before me."

"Hmph. I have a feeling that your... creative interpretation will not survive a reread."

"Oh, and why is that? Because you're always right?"

"One of many reasons."

"Oh, for... Don't you ever get tired of being so very smart?"

"I'm sorry?"

"It's constant with you. You have to be smarter than everyone else."

"That sounds like the regnar mocking the sand..."

"Yes, yes, pots and kettles, but really, it never stops with you."

"Nor with you."

"Pardon me?"

"Am I wrong?"

"Well, that's... I mean, I often _am_ smarter than everyone else."

"Ah. Due to your vaunted Federation education, no doubt."

"And I _try._ Look, I do my best to stay on top of everything. I _have_ to. It's not for me, you know: my colleagues rely on me to have the answers--"

"And thus you justify your attempts to assuage your poorly-hidden feelings of inadequacy by acting unnecessarily clever."

"That's unfair!"

"And inaccurate?"

"...all right, what about you? If I'm assuaging my 'deep-seated inadequacies' by trying to know as much as I can, then what are you doing by acting so clever all the time?"

"No acting is required. I simply _am_ this clever."

"Oh, you're ridiculous."

"Am I?"

"I know you, Garak."

"Well, my dear doctor, I will tell you one thing that you, for all your cleverness, don't seem to have figured out."

"Which is?"

"One doesn't actually have to _be_ smarter than everyone else. One simply has to be smarter than the people one is with."

"Very funny."

"Very true."

"And that's why you keep having lunch with me? I'm your greatest challenge, am I?"

"On the contrary: my easiest, most reassuring victory."

 


End file.
